


Strawhat Mafia Project - Undercover

by Avarin



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Angst, How Do I Tag, M/M, Undercover, What Was I Thinking?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-02-19 15:20:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13126434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Avarin/pseuds/Avarin
Summary: Law would do anything to catch the killer who destroyed his life, even work as a police consultant. But after two years of nothing Garp finally has enough and assigns him to an even crazier case - a gang of undercover cops, lead by Strawhat Luffy himself, is about to take on infamous Donquixote family ... and oh boy, Law has no idea what he's getting into ...





	1. CASE

**Author's Note:**

> I am sorry. For all the grammar mistakes and for everything else. Please bear with me ...

He was laying on the floor, with his hand stretched like he was still trying to escape his fate. There was no blood, only terrible smell of the rotten corpse that almost made the cop, who was guarding the door, vomit. Even though it was less than two hours back that they had found him, he was already dead for a day or two. They were lucky though, they were on a second floor of an abandoned building, filled by graffiti, broken glass and trash. Last time the crime had happened in a building like this, they found a corpse already half eaten by rats and other small animals. If not for some lost junkie, they probably wouldn’t have found it at all.  
Shachi kneeled near the corpse and slowly rotated him on the side, supporting his head and shoulder.  
“His neck,” he said and Law leaned closer.  
He could see a tiny line on the swollen neck, like that he was strangled to death by a string.  
“Is it the same as the others?” asked Shachi unnecessarily.  
“The same,” said Law dryly and closed his eyes. That was the fourth Joker’s victim this month. This damn murderer was killing more and more people and they still had no idea how to stop him. Then his eyes snapped open when he noticed something.  
“There,” he whispered and Shachi gasped when he saw what Law was looking at.  
The door behind them suddenly opened and the cop flinched.  
“Found something?” asked Kid, not paying any attention to the startled cop.  
“Yes,” said Law.  
“There was more pressure applied on the right side, meaning Joker is right handed,” explained Shachi.  
Kid laughed.  
“Yeah, just like the other 90% of world population,” he said. “Tell me something I don’t know.”  
“Fine,” snapped Law. “Joker has never made a mistake before. Never. He never left a clue, not even as trivial as this. And look at the mark!”  
Kid’s eyes followed his partner’s hand to the big black mark on the wall. Like a gigantic smiley, with one line drawn across it. Joker’s mark.  
“It’s drawn in a hurry,” he realized.  
“Exactly!” said Law. “So maybe he left something else, some clue we just haven’t found yet …”  
“Nah, you won’t find a thing,” said Kid with the same bored voice.  
“But …”  
“There was the whole team here already, swiping the place clean. And they haven’t found anything. So if the true detectives haven’t found anything, you don’t stand a chance.”  
“What a great partner you are,” hissed Law.  
“Yeah, I’m going out to smoke,” said Kid and left before his partner could snap again.  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
“You’re an asshole,” said Law when he joined Kid half an hour later, frowning.  
The other detective was leaning on the wall, smirking at the pissed partner.  
“Told you you won’t find a thing,” said Kid.  
“Shut up,” groaned Law. “Sometimes I ask myself if you’re even trying to find him.”  
“Well keep on asking yourself that, partner,” said Kid as he pated Law on the back, and then he left to look for their car that was moved by a police officer earlier. There were some people from the press wondering around, but not really paying attention. General public could only read headlines like “Joker strikes again!” and “Mysterious string murders!” and “Police still without a clue!” few times before getting bored.

  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

  
“Who was our victim this time?” asked Garp.  
“Some doctor from a local clinic,” answered Kid. He knew Garp wouldn’t ask if they had found something. He stopped after a year or so.  
“And he had no connection to our other victims. Absolutely none,” he added.  
“I see,” groaned Garp who expected nothing else. “I still want to see the report though.”  
“Will do sir,” said Kid and saluted. Then he disappeared from the office before Garp could realize he was mocking him. That left Law alone with the captain and before he could excuse himself, Garp was speaking again.  
“I heard that you found a clue,” he said.  
“Yeah,” said Law and whished floor would swallow him.  
“Apparently he is right handed.”  
“Yeah,” said Law again. He couldn’t bring himself to look at the older officer.  
“Kid said you are starting to see clues where there are none,” said Garp slowly.  
“That fucking asshole,” hissed Law. Garp didn’t corrected him. Apparently he had the same opinion.  
“Seriously though, you need a break,” said Garp.  
“What, are you going to send me on a holiday?” snapped Law. He hated that shit.  
“Nah, I’m going to give you another case. You’re too useful for the holidays.”  
Before Law could say anything, Garp stood up and leaned trough his office doors.  
“Coby!” he shouted.  
He looked back at Law.  
“Is this okay with you?”  
“No, of course not!” Law was so angry that for a second he didn’t know what to say.  
“I’m here as a consultant for one case and one case only! I’m a Joker specialist! I want to catch this bastard that destroyed my life, I don’t have time to play around!”  
“Well I’m glad we’re on the same page,” said Garp and leaned through the door again.  
“Coby, where the hell are you!?”  
Law rolled his eyes. He saw the young policeman who was guarding the crime scene earlier running towards them. He was saluting even before he stopped.  
“Do you need a coffee, sir?” he asked politely.  
“No, I need all the files on Donquixote family.”  
“All of them, sir?” asked Coby weakly.  
“Yes all of them. You can ask Helmeppo to help you carry them to Law’s desk.”  
Coby’s eyes widened when he recognized Law.  
“But isn’t he a homicide detective?” he asked confused.  
There were few moments of silence. Law could feel himself blushing in embarrassment.  
“I’m not a detective,” he admitted. “I’m just a consultant.”  
“But then what are you …” Coby looked generally confused. Law closed his eyes.  
“I’m a surgeon,” he said slowly trough the clenched teeth.  
“Oh,” whispered Coby before he could stop himself. “The Surgeon of Death.”  
Then he realized what he just said.  
“I’m sorry,” he said awkwardly. “I will bring the files right away!”  
“And some coffee!” shouted Garp after the young cop.  
“And some coffee …”  
“So …” said Garp and sat down behind his desk again. “I’m glad that you accepted.”  
“I didn’t …” Law bitted his own tongue. Arguing with this old man was meaningless.  
Garp laughed and Law had a very vivid mental image of himself punching his captain in the face.  
“Do you know what SP is?” asked Garp and he leaned closer to Law like he was telling him a secret.  
“Of course,” answered Law. “They are supposed to be FBI special agents who go undercover and then take out FBI’s enemies without anybody noticing. Nobody knows if they really exist though.”  
“But do you know that SP isn’t just a FBI thing?” asked Garp with a smirk.  
“No,” said Law slightly annoyed. He still didn’t know what this whole SP thing had to do with him.  
“We have it too,” said Garp who was almost whispering now. “And it’s super secretive, I’m the only one that knows about them.”  
“I do too, sir.”  
Even Law jumped at the sudden voice behind him. When he turned, he saw Coby holding a plate with two coffees and a pile of cookies on it.  
“Here we go,” he said as he placed one coffee and cookies before Garp, who was still staring at him in horror, and one coffee before Law. He even used his favorite mug for it.  
“But how?” asked Garp.  
“You told me to organize their files alphabetically and by date,” said Coby. “I could not do that without reading some of them.”  
“Oh, then it’s ok,” said Garp, causing Law to facepalm. How this idiot became the captain was a mystery.  
“So …” continued Garp, weaving Coby to leave already. “SP means Strawhat Project. You see, we realized we could not fight against gangs and mafia without having to rely on some of them, and there were none that were trustworthy. So we decided to take some unknown cops and new recruits from the academy and let them form a gang. They had been undercover for two years now and they have already taken out some big gangs and they gathered tons of useful info. Their current target is Donquixote family and I want you to help them take it down.”  
He was interrupted by Coby again who came to tell them that file transferring was done. And he reminded them to drink their coffee before it gets cold.  
“That’s some big target they have.”  
Law had to admit it did sound interesting.  
“Call Smoker,” said Garp to Coby, then he turned back to Law.  
“I’m going to get you a meeting with their captain, Strawhat Luffy. You should go through the files first.”  
Law raised his eyebrow.  
“What kind of name is Strawhat?” he asked.  
“Undercover, remember?” answered Garp. “Anyway, you will know when you see him.”  
Door of the office opened yet again and a very grumpy cop looked in.  
“You called me, sir,” said Smoker. He looked coldly at Law. He was one of those police officers that hated every detective for no reason at all.  
“When you have some time, go out and arrest Strawhat Luffy.”  
“Yes, sir,” said Smoker and rolled his eyes as he left the office.  
Garp shrugged at Law.  
“Appearances,” he said.

  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

  
Law was walking through the station for the third time in the last few hours. He wanted to refill his coffee mug before he went through the last files. People were still turning and looking after him, but it wasn’t nearly as disturbing as it was when he first started working here.  
He was somewhat grateful for a partner like Kid who never asked any personal questions and didn’t stick his nose into Law’s business. He also kept everybody away from the desk that they shared at first. Now they had desks next to each other and Law was proud of that, even if he’d rather die than admit that out loud. So it was no surprise he felt a sharp pang of anger when he saw that somebody was sitting on top of it, right next to the gigantic pile of files. But he smiled when he realized just who was he looking at.  
“What the hell,” he thought. “He actually wears a strawhat.”  
Then Law forced his face into a frown.  
“I’m Trafalgar Law,” he said to the teen. “And you’re sitting on my desk.”  
Teen laughed like he had no care on the world. Law already forgot what was he frowning at.  
“I’m Monkey D. Luffy,” said the teen. “And I’m going to be the king of the mafia!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh wow you read it! Thank you! You are amazing (unless you skipped the story, but then i don't know what are you doing here). First of all, again I am sorry for all the grammar mistakes and all possible typos and wrong tenses and so on. This is the first fanfic i have ever written and first story in english, so please go easy on me, I am a rookie ;) I had something around five chapters planed with this one not included, since it is just a long intro to give a taste of what this story is all about. Next chapter will be focused on introduction of all characters, Law's shady past and some action when undercover begins! Yay!


	2. Law Undercover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why I am sorry you can read in notes of first chapter, so that I don't repeat myself.

Law was staring dumbly and didn’t know what to say. Had he heard this right? Or were his ears playing tricks on him? Did this kid, he found no other word, just said … Yes, he was sure of it. But he found this Luffy person’s other appearance even stranger. He wore jeans and T-shirt and a straw hat, and he felt so wrong sitting in the middle of police station, so out of place, that Law wondered if he hadn’t fallen asleep on his desk and was dreaming now. But really, had sun always been shining this bright? And what a nice color was the sky! He looked at Luffy again. Raven haired kid was smiling at him.

Suddenly, he imagined Luffy sitting on the figurehead of the ship. Waves were rocking it gently and the wind …

Law slapped himself. His vivid images disappeared right away. He was tired and his brain was doing strange things because he was sitting on the sunlight for too long. Like it was his fault that Garp changed old coffee room into his and Kidd’s office and that it had a large window! They needed privacy working on a case like that after all. But really, what kind of idiot – oh, right, Garp – would put such a radiant person undercover?

“Shut up, Luffy!” said another person that Law had just noticed. Unlike Luffy, this one looked like a real gangster. He had a green hair in a color of the grass and a scar across his left eye. And he even had a sword below his … Wait, he had a sword?!

Law sighted. He wondered just what the hell he had done to be dragged into such a mess.

“Cop who arrested us said something about everything we say being used against us,” said green haired person glaring at his captain. “We’ve already been arrested, Luffy. Don’t say things that will get us convicted as well.”

Law smirked at them.

“But don’t you two work for the government?” he asked.

“Yea …” started Luffy, but greenhead, who was incredibly fast, put his hand across younger guy’s mouth, silencing him.

“We do not,” said swordsman. “And we aren’t undercover cops who work for Garp.”

Law grimaced, trying to figure out if he was being sarcastic or just plain stupid.

“How did you two even get into SP?” he asked and meant it like a rhetorical question, but point flew straight over Luffy’s head.

“Cuz my grandpa is Garp,” said the teen.

Law laughed. Of all the things young one had said, this one was the best. It was over the top joke, maybe, but it was funny nonetheless. And then he noticed he was the only one laughing. He stopped.

“Seriously?” he asked in disbelief. But on the other hand, that would explain quite a lot.

“Yeah,” said Luffy, serious all the sudden. “You know about SP?”

“Garp told me just now,” answered Law. “And it seems like I’m supposed to help you bring down Donquixihote family. All those files are about them.”

Luffy turned to files on his right, not showing any attempt to move down from Law’s desk.

"That's a lot of files," he said in awe. "Not even Robin read this much, right Zoro?"

"We all had to read this much," said greenhaired, apparently Zoro, frowning at Luffy. "Except for you of course. You never paid any attention to data we gathered anyway."

Law watched in wonder how Luffy jumped down from his desk and run to the window.

"Look, a butterfly!" he shouted excitedly. Zoro rolled his eyes, but didn't look all that surprised.

"So, we were arrested just to meet up with you?" asked Zoro, looking slightly worried.

"Yes, don't worry," said Law. "This is just some Garp's crazy idea of keeping you undercover."

Zoro let out a sigh of relief.

"That's good," he said. "Nami said she will bill me if we get send to prison. It costs a lot to break out."

"Yeah," laughed Luffy whose attention suddenly jumped back to their conversation. "Hey Law, this guy once ..."

Door behind them flew open and Garp came in shouting: "How is my stupid grandson?"

Luffy responded with equally loud: "Who are you calling stupid, stupid?!"

And Law was glad he did, otherwise he might have heard something he couldn't unhear.

"But Zoro," said Luffy looking like something bothered him. "When did Nami say that?"

"When Smoker chased you over half of the city," said Zoro and Law chuckled, imagining it too vividly.

"Seriously though," Zoro turned to Garp. "That man deserves a raise."

"Not gonna happen," laughed Garp while chocking his grandson in a way that Law couldn't possibly describe as lovingly.

"Can I see your hideout?" asked Law just to turn their attention back to him.

“Oh, yes, it’s awesome, you really have to see it!” shouted Luffy with sparkles in his eyes. “And then Sanji can cook us something!”

“You should go there right away,” said Garp who seemed thrilled that Law had no objections to help with the case.

“Eh …” he said, he hasn’t seen that one coming. “But is it ok for you two to walk around with a police consultant?”

“You’re right,” said Luffy and frowned deeply. “You need an undercover name!”

“Wait, what?”

“What about Torao?”

“Oh, hell no!”

Luffy was standing in front of him all the sudden and looking up with his puppy dog eyes.

“Please?” he asked sadly.

“Well …” Law just couldn’t say no. Why couldn’t he say no?

“Let’s go then,” said Zoro when he noticed Law hesitating.

They left with Garp leading them through the police precinct. It was mostly empty because policemen and detectives were either home or on the field. Only Smoker was standing next to his desk, looking at them. He had unlighted cigarette in his mouth.

“Hey Smokey! “ laughed Luffy and waved at him. Zoro and Law chuckled at the sight of Smoker biting his cigarette on two in fury. "What is going on?" he asked carefully, trying to hold back his anger.

"They are free to go," said Garp.

"Seriously?!" shouted Smoker desperately. "I hunted this brat over half of the city!"

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Take a left turn here."

“No! We have to go right!”

"We have to go straight here you two, and right on the next turn."

"So, I was right!" laughed Luffy and Law sighed.

"You were not," he pointed out with annoyance in his voice and was silently thanking all gods up above that he had a GPS in his car. Because Luffy kinda knew where they are supposed to go, and Zorro had absolutely no idea. He always found a wrong way no matter how impossible did it seem. They were sitting in Law's car and driving further and further away from the downtown. Law expected nothing else, gangs usually stayed at suburbs, after all. Road was getting worse and instead of breath taking skyscraper, abandoned old buildings, factories and gigantic storage halls filled the view. Some of Joker's victims were dumped in parts of city that looked like this, so Law wasn’t really surprised how bad things were around here, but he still filched when he saw two men beating another in the middle of the street. Luffy and Zoro didn't even bat an eye.

After few more turns they were, like Luffy and Zoro and more importantly - his GPS - were saying, very close to Strawhat's hideout. Law was beginning to wonder what it was like. He started to pay more attention to buildings they were driving by. Some were abandoned and some just looked that way. And then …

Oh, my god, please, no, thought Law when GPS said: you have arrived, and he stopped the car. But Luffy was shouting enthusiastically on the back sit and Zoro beside him  attempted to open the door. God dammit, it was.

Strawhat’s hideout was between two plain looking buildings, with broken windows, walls gray and boring. But the hideout was, well, colorful. It was made from wood and it had gigantic windows with nice curtains that had tiny suns drown on them. It had a long balcony with cute fence and two tangerine trees bathing in the sun. Under the balcony was a figure of a lion supporting it in one corner and above the door was written: A thousand sunny.

"Is this it?" asked Law weakly.

"Yes!" shouted Luffy and jumped out of the car. "Let’s go inside!"

"You can park over there," sad Zoro who also stepped out of the car and he waved in the certain direction. "And we  will explain everything to the others and wait inside."

Law nodded and after Zoro closed Law's doors, he drove in opposite direction of the one swordsman had pointed to. He could already see few parking spots in the back alley. He was hesitating to leave his expensive new car over here. He looked up to dark windows of the buildings around him. They looked a lot better  preserved than most of those Law had seen in last half hour. He had to admit, Strawhats could choose a location if nothing else. He turned to see what kind of cars were already parked there or better in what kind of state were they in. Two normal cars and one wan, all perfectly intact and untouched. They all had a small straw hat drown on them which made Law wander if they were left alone because of Strawhats reputation. He let them wait long enough, he should stop worrying about his car and focus on the case.

He crossed the empty road looking nervously in all directions. He really didn't know how to act, he was a surgeon, not trained to be undercover dammit! He had no idea if he should have been acting normally like he is walking to a fucking grocery shop or he should have covered his face and pretended to be invisible. He drew a deep breath and knocked. He expected no response, so it startled him when the door opened immediately. The door had been opened by a young man with black hair and a long nose. He was younger than Zoro and Law but older than Luffy, and for some reason, he looked just as startled as Law was. "What's your code name?" he whispered.

Now Law was fighting with himself, one part of his brain shouting on another. Confident Law was shouting on intelligent Law: just fucking say it! for what it seemed as hours, but it was just a few seconds.

"Torao," he said to the strawhat member with the defeat in his voice. "It's Torao."

Younger guy let out a sigh of relief. He even smiled nervously. "And I'm a Sniper king!" he said proudly in a superhero pose. Law wanted to say something else, but Sniper king stopped him with pushing him inside.

"Hurry, hurry!" he whispered with a worried voice.

“You never know who is watching,” he said looking over Low's shoulder. His eyes were wide like he was expecting a group of ninjas to swipe down from the rooftops and attack them. He closed the reinforced door with a loud bang.

“You never know,” he repeated with such a paranoia that even Law started to get nervous and to distract himself, he looked around the room they were in.

It was filled with light because of the gigantic windows, but dimmed where sunlight hit the curtains. Long wooden table stood in the middle, surrounded by chairs. White counter was placed next to the left wall with small bar chairs beside it end behind it was an opened door through which a kitchen could be seen. Whole place was nice and cozy and it felt like home. And it was absolutely ridiculous to just think about it like a gang hideout. It looked as a bar from downtown or maybe a home of a large family.

“Follow me,” said Sniper king with more normal voice, interrupting Laws thoughts. “Everybody is waiting.”

Just as he said that, a blond-haired guy appeared from the cellar in the far-left corner of the room. There were the stairs, one leading up and another down.

“Hurry up Usopp!” he shouted, walking by them and to the kitchen doors. “I’m bringing drinks and a dessert!”

“No names!” whispered Sniper king, apparently Usapp, after the blond guy with a scared voice. “No names, Blackleg!”

Law smirked, and he could hear laughter from the kitchen.

“I am Sanji by the way!” shouted Blackleg loud enough to have been probably heard even outside and Law enjoyed way too much how Usopp flinched like he had been shot and fall down the stairs with a yelp. Seems like he wasn’t the only one since unique laughter filled the cellar as strawhats couldn’t help themselves. When Law came after the longnose guy to the end of the stairs, Luffy was already rolling on the floor, tears flowing from his eyes. Three more guys were laughing wholeheartedly around the round table in front of Law and so was one girl. Another woman was smirking, but covering her mouth with her hand. Young man, even younger than Luffy, was shaking Usopp on the floor desperately.

“Please say that you are ok!” he said with terror in his voice. “Usopp!”

“No… names…,” let out Usopp weakly, resulting in another wave of laughing. Law smirked again and raven-haired woman, who was covering her face, looked up like she had just notched him.

“Quiet down everybody, we have a guest,” she said quietly with a gentle, silky voice. “Behave.”

Zoro stood up and pulled Luffy back to his seat on the red cushion sofa surrounding the table and Usapp got helped by a strange looking blue-haired guy… seriously, what was with their hair? Youngest guy followed Sniper king, looking worried. This was the first time Law looked around and finally noticed something. His jaw dropped. They were standing in the middle of an aquarium. Fishes were slowly swimming trough the water that was separated from the room they were in with a thick glass. LED lights, placed all over the aquarium, did not light up only the water, but everything else as well, with stairs included. Earlier Law thought he couldn’t be more surprised. He just found out how wrong he had been.

“I am sorry about how the others are acting,” said woman that was laughing with the others earlier. She had a long orange hair and a vide blue eyes. Her clothes were… insufficient, to say the least. If her shorts were any shorter, they could be called swimwear. Her voice had a nice melodical undertone like she was trying to charm him.

“They have no manners,” she continued. “No manners at all.” Some of the strawhats laughed like something funny was going on.

“Stop it, Nami,” sighed Zoro. “I told you two times already, he isn’t here for your raise.”

Surprised Law looked at orange haired women whose face turned into a growl.

“And I told you, Zoro, that you never know,” she hissed. “So, shut your mouth.”

“You look lovely even when you’re angry, Nami!” shouted Sanji down the stairs, running to them with a plate with drinks in one hand and dessert in the other.

“Sanji! What about ice cream? I want ice cream!” shouted young kid who helped Usopp earlier.

“Me too!” yelled Luffy and Usopp.

“Get it yourselves,” said Sanji, his voice cold all the sudden.

“So rude,” frowned long nosed one, but followed his friends up the stairs soon after.

“Why don’t you sit, and we introduce ourselves?” asked Zoro and waved his hand to now empty places on the sofa. Law nodded and sat down next to swordsman. He leaned forward and crossed his fingers.

“Let’s start with me,” said Zoro. He was looking at the older raven with a slight caution in his eyes.

“My name is Roronoa Zoro and I am 23 years old. I was in a third year of police academy when they recruited me. I used to be a part time bounty hunter, so I guess I was perfect for their gang plan. I act like a vice captain of the strawhats.”

He stopped talking and nodded to his right where the orange-haired woman was sitting.

“Hi, I’m Nami,” she said. “I am also 23 years old and I was in the same year as Zoro. I was a thief before I became the cop, so yeah…”

She shrugged.

“I was born for this role,” she said confidently.” I can steal anything, and I excel at undercover jobs. I am also drawing a map of the city with important details such as gang hideouts and where you can find dealers and so on.”

“But you plan to give this map to the police?” Law asked her.

She answered with a catlike smile.

“if they pay me well enough,” she said and waved past two empty seats to the dark-haired women, the one who announced him earlier as a guest. She smiled at him with a Monalisa smile, smile with a secret. She had deep mysterious eyes and was full of elegance. “My name is Robin and I’m 26,” she said, “I used to be a detective with a perfect solved crime radio, but for a certain reason I have never shown myself in public or talked to the press. In this team I am, if I can express myself like this, a know-it-all. I am also very interested in history, so if you want to know where are the underground tunnels locked in this city, just ask. Otherwise…”

She slowly raised her hand with her palm up and turn it to a blue-haired macho guy next to her without moving her gaze from Law.

“Oi!” he shouted that guy excitedly. Law had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. A very loud introduction was about to follow.

“Quiet down a bit, Franky,” said Robin, still looking at Law.

“Sorry, sorry,” laughed Franky with a more normal sounding voice. “So, I’m Franky, also 26. I’m not a cop. I’m from the army, tank specialist, but more a mechanic, really. And I’m super good with robots…”

“Where is Sanji?” interrupted Nami, but nobody seemed to mind.

“He went up after those three,” said the last guy in the room, siting on Law’s right. “I think he wants to stop them from destroying our kitchen.”

Law was getting too used to do this, he hadn’t even flinched. The man who answered was the oldest of them all and terribly shiny, you could almost see all his bones. That was not the strangest thing about him though, he had an afro. Like seriously, what was with strawhats and their hair?!

“My name is Brook and I don’t wish to tell you how old I am,” he said. “I have been a cop for a really long time, but I am not really good at it and I missed a lot of days of work because I was focusing on my  music carrier.”

“Your music carrier,” repeated Law with a hollow voice.

“Yes,” said Brook  like it wasn’t strange at all and sipped some of his tea.

“So, what about you?” asked Robin. The look in her eyes was strange, like she recognized him.

“Well,” started Law. “I used to be surgeon and now I’m a police consultant. End of the story.”

He wanted to shift attention before anyone could dig deeper. Too late.

“Well it might be the end,” said Robin gently. “But there is much more at the beginning, isn’t there, Surgeon of Death?”

“We are not going to pry,” said Zoro immediately. “There are things in our pasts that we would be uncomfortable to talk about as well. No need to tell us anything you don’t want to or think it isn’t important.”

Law looked down and noticed that Sanji left him a drink as well. It looked like a lemonade and it even had a slice of lemon placed on it. Next to it was a delicious looking cake. He sent a questioning look to Zoro and green-haired leaned closer. “Eat it before Luffy gets back,” he whispered. Law did as he was told, and room was filled with a comfortable silence.

That lasted less than a minute because then Luffy was back, laughing and shouting something and youngest kid was running after him around the table. Usopp came running down the stairs with hands full of ice cream and Sanji was right after him, screaming: “Hey, that’s for ladies, give it back!”

Law had to admit to himself, he didn’t mind it as much as he thought he would. Gentle tap on his hand awoke him from the thoughts. Robin placed her hand on his and smiled across the table. She pointed her other hand’s finger to four directions.

“Luffy, captain, Tony, doctor, Usopp, sniper, Sanji, cook,” she said, then dropped her gaze back to her coffee. The introductions have been completed.

Law then left them alone for a while, just watching and thinking. Soon he was deep in his thoughts and didn’t even notice when both Nami and Robin stood up and left.

“… so, this is where you come in.”

“Ha?”

“Were you even listening to me?” asked Zoro slightly annoyed.

Upon seeing Law’s lost gaze, he sighed and waved his head.

“Fine, again,” he said slowly. “We managed to track one of the, let’s say, less concealed parts of Donquixihote operation. Our lead ended at the local clinic. But the problem is that we are not sure who is our guy, and what exactly is his role.”

“So, I applied for work there almost immediately,” said Nami, who rejoined them. “But I hardly have any clearance as a cleaning lady.”

“We need someone who will get into higher circles fairly quickly over there and not in the way Nami tried,” added Franky.

“What can I say? The head guy over there is super strange, he hadn’t even looked at me, I mean, how can you _not_ look at me?” asked Nami, visibly upset about that fact, pouting a little.

“I could look at you whole day, Nami!” said Sanji, making Law think there was some real affection between those two, till in next moment cook placed red rose into Robin’s hand when she also came back, and danced away like a shy teenager.

“Don’t mind him,” said Robin disregarding the rose in an absolutely cold manner. “He flirts with every girl he sees. It’s a guilty habit.”

“Both me and Tony tried to get hired in that clinic without success,” she continued.

“Yeah with my education I couldn’t be more than an assistant and they have enough of those apparently,” said Tony in a sad tone.

“So …” started Usopp. “Look what we found!”

Brook finally moved, placing printed online page before Law. Looking for a surgeon! it screamed.

“Oh,” said Law.

“We asked Garp for a surgeon!” laughed Luffy. “And now we got you and it turns out you are a surgeon as well! What a coincidence!”

Half of the people present rolled their eyes.

 

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

It all moved faster than Law thought it would. He barely sent his CV containing all his experiences and education to some Caesar, who run that clinic named Punk Hazard, and he was already called to come there, not for an interview but to start work already.

Mission seemed simple enough. Find the guy who works for mafia family. Yeah. No problem.

So why was he so nervous staring at the clinic entrance and couldn’t make himself move?

“Hey, do you need something?” asked an unfamiliar voice, startling Law. Security guard looked from his office at the entrance, his sunglasses, frown on his face and a baton (especially that) making him look a bit intimidating.

“Well …” now or never. “I work here. From today on.”

“Oh,” said guard. “Then you are Law, I presume? My name is Vergo Dara, and if you’re ready I can take you to Caesar, but if you want to look at the entrance some more time …”

“No, it’s fine,” said Law and followed Vergo guy with a blush creeping on his face. Well that was a great start.

In general, he liked what he saw of the clinic. It was way simpler and nowhere near as fancy as the ones he worked in before, but it looked and felt nice and welcoming. Colors were mostly natural, carpets were everywhere, and no sharp edges.

“Our clients are mostly children,” explained Dara. “And some guys from the local construction site, but we specialize in kids under age of ten. Until recently there was no need for any specialized doctor, what even a surgeon, but lately we had a terrible shift for the worse in those poor little patients … But you will see more for yourself.

They arrived at the Caesar’s office.

“Sir?” asked Vergo gently after knocking. “I brought Law Trafalgar.”

There was a loud noise from the room like something heavy fell and then door were blasted open.

“Laaaaaaaw!” shouted the guy who stormed trough them. Like everyone else Law meet since he joined the Donquixihote case, this doctor whatshisname was weird, no other word to describe him.

“Hey,” managed Law.

“Oh, this is going to be great!” Caesar laughed. “Surgeon, ha? Well let me give you a tour and then you can start!”

“Don’t we need …“ tried Law.

“No, no, it’s fine, don’t mind the formalities! Let’s go, let’s just go already!”

“He’s all yours,” shrugged Dara and left.

Great, thought Law.

“Come, let me show you my mighty clinic! Ah, Monet, follow us,” said Caesar leaning back into his office. Then he left, waving Law to come after him and he did. Young woman slipped after them, no more than Zoro’s and Nami’s age, with a pencil and a notebook in her hands. Caesar haven’t even noticed her, he was too far lost in his own speeches about how great is everything around there.

“Kids love me!” he bragged.  “They call me the Clown!”

“That’s not why they call you that,” muttered Monet under her breath.

“Hm?”

“Nothing.”

Law smirked feeling they could get along. But maybe she was the person he was looking for? She definitely had the position. Or maybe Dara? With access to everywhere?

Looking trough his cameras? Yes, he was a possibility. And Caesar? No, no way.

They were seeing some doctors from time to time, and a few of the stuff, but never any patients. Law finally asked Caesar about it when they crossed another seemingly busy doctor.

“Well we can’t have all those infested little wonders running around, can we?” answered head of the clinic while laughing wholeheartedly.

“No, we cannot,” added Monet in a tone Law really didn’t like.

“Fine,” he said. “Then what am I supposed to do today? And please no more speeches about paintings and windows and doors and fucking coffee machines.”

 “But this one has over 30 different functions …” said Caesar looking sad and insulted.

“He’s right, just tell him already,” said Monet, scribing restlessly into her notebook.

“Fine,” gave up Caesar. “You will start helping some of my guys with those construction workers. We are mostly equipped and educated to help children, but that accident happened really close to here and their employer was eager to take care of it as soon as possible.”

Law nodded, that sounded about right.

“I know it isn’t a work worthy of a surgeon, but … Look this coffee machine can even make candy, people are crazy about it … The whole children thing is very delicate, so I will need you to look into it a bit more before I let you treat them.”

“I understand,” said Law.

Caesar left after that, but Monet stayed with Law and introduced him to most of the doctors working there. Law was getting bored terribly fast. Most of the employee were so ordinary and mundane he was having trouble imagining one of them getting a speeding ticket, so if one was working for mafia, he was an amazing actor.

“Okay so that’s taken care off,” said Monet when she swiftly got them away from the crowd. “Like Caesar said, start with adults and when you’re done for the day, come to see him in his office to plan your next days here. See you!”

She waved and disappeared back to whatever she was doing before he showed up.

Even though it wouldn’t help the investigation, he still checked out his new patients. Getting fired on the first day wouldn’t help either. But he never even tried to treat any of them. If he saw what was wrong or where they could help, he whispered it to a passing doctor or wrote it on a piece of paper. Nobody seemed to mind, and he was tankful for that. Even if they thought he was being cold or an asshole, it was still better than the alternative. Any patient he helped was a dead man after all. Joker made sure of that.

Day passed pretty fast, given how boring it was after all the excitement lately. But maybe that was it – an ordinary day at ordinary job he missed so much. He almost forgot what he was there for … Looking for mafia guy? Ok sure, still no problem.

It was late before he finished … He got a bit carried away and perhaps helped a bit more than he was supposed to. Bur Caesar was lucky still there, just leaving his office.

“Oh Law, I was just about to leave,” said the head. “Why don’t you join Monet in there and take care of the annoying details like working hours and documents and salary?”

“Em, sure?” said Law.

“Great,” said Caesar and left quickly.

“Ok,” whispered Law to himself. “Bye.”

Monet was good at her work, they finished all details fairly quickly and then all that was left were files on children treatment.

“I believed Caesar wanted to show you this himself but oh well,” she sighed and put a bunch of scripts before him. “It’s all in here, but do feel free to take break first, go eat something, grab a real coffee, not that machine crap.”

She moved across room, collecting her things.

“Come, I’ll walk you out,” she offered. “I’ll make sure Dara will let you back in here later. This is the only place that’s usually of limits, it’s always locked. Not even that cheesy clean lady is allowed to enter.”

“I see,” said Law. “I need to grab my …”

“Coat and a hat? It looks nice on you by the way. Yeah sure, then see you tomorrow … I will stop in Virgo’s office, but no need to come in.”

“Thank you,” answered Law. He couldn’t believe his luck. He will have access to Caesar’s office containing all information about everything going on in clinic, and he will be alone for the whole night. He smiled for a bit, and then stopped in surprise. He was smiling so much in the last few days, more than in years actually. He might even have to – he dreaded the bare thought of it – thank Garp.

When he left, he headed straight for the police station. He hoped there was anything on Punk Hazard in Garp’s files, or at least that any of the employee were mentioned. And Monet was right, he could use some coffee. Not knowingly he started smiling again.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Kid was just wrapping everything up and locking down his (and Law’s) office, when his partner showed up, waving him to leave it open.

“Look at you, man,” said Kid half teasingly. “Such a rare sight nowadays.”

He was utterly shocked when Law actually _laughed_.

“Hey dude,” he managed to get out. “I think someone slipped something into your coffee.”

Law shook his head.

“I’m just happy, that’s all,” he said with a confused glare. “You think it’s a bad thing?”

“No, not at all,” answered Kid and started to go backwards. “It’s a good thing, Law, really. By the way, why are you back here?”

“I need to look into some Punk Hazard clinic.”

“That sounds familiar,” said Kid confused. “Oh, right, the last Joker victim was a doctor from there.”

Then he flinched.

“I mean …”

“Never mind that,” said Law dismissively. “Joker is no longer my case, I don’t care. Have a good night, Kid.”

And he went into office.

Kid turned and left.

“A good thing indeed.”

He was smiling slightly when he left.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Good two hours later Law still had nothing on Punk Hazard, but even that couldn’t burst his happy bubble. Kid called few minutes back, checking on him and telling him he was glad Law got Joker from his mind for at least a day. Law couldn’t help but to agree. All the tension was slowly starting to leave his body, and working with strawhats themselves was a pleasure. They were entertaining and far from businesslike people Law worked with before.  They acted like a big family, and had a special, close relationship that Law could never imagine having, not even with Kid.

He drove back to Punk Hazard clinic and nodded to camera before guarded parking spot that Monet said he could use. Vergo Dara was already at the entrance when Law arrived, which made him wonder, since Dara was at clinic since morning, if the guy slept inside or something. But maybe he was just working overtime like Law, he definitely looked rested.

“Welcome back,” he said, guiding Law through the dark hallways of clinic. “If you will need anything, just come out of Caesar’s office and wave. Head doesn’t like surveillance in his places so camera in there is turned off. Feel free to stay until morning if you are not tired. Files are quite complex I’m afraid.”

Law was just about to ask what security guard knew about patient treatment documents, but they just arrived at Caesar’s office and he forgot about it.

“Thank you,” he said to Dara after guard opened doors for him.

Vergo nodded, waited till Law was inside and then closed the door after him.

“So,” said Law to himself and cracked his fingers. “Let’s get started.”

He turned on all lights in office, it could certainly help with his search. But first, he had a pile of files to get through. If Dara came back, or Monet by any chance, he didn’t want to give them any chance to doubt him. If any of them worked for mafia, and he was sure it was one of them, it wouldn’t end nice. So, he started to read.

It was fine at first. Nothing out of the ordinary, except the fact that Law couldn’t see the original problem. Yes, the children were recovering from quite severe illness, but all of those were caused as a side effects of the treatments, which were, generally speaking, _really experimental_. Law hadn’t heard about half of them, and that said something. Those he had heard about, well, they weren’t nice. He or his former colleagues would have never even think about using any of them. And the injections they were given … Law couldn’t think of anything besides some kind of super soldier serum, but that was crazy, fantasy novel level crazy. It might explain all the troubles kids were having and all necessary procedures, and even Caesar searching for a surgeon, but still … There was no way, no way in hell. Operation on such a scale … He read on. It got worse. There were so many addictive materials on the medicine list, quite some of them forbidden, that Law’s head started to hurt. And not just the medicine, everything inside of the clinic – coffee, candy, even the damn air was filled with the dangerous mix. But then … if that was the case …

Law jumped up from behind the Caesar’s desk. He hastily searched through other files, finally finding head’s own notes on all employees. And it was all there. He turned page after page with his shaking hands and it all made such a terrible sense. Strawhats were wrong. So, so deadly wrong. It wasn’t a guy working for a mafia. It wasn’t one employee. It was the whole god forsaken clinic. His heart froze. Dara!

He run to the door and tried to open them. Locked. He turned. No windows. His phone was still in his pocket, but he had no signal. Not even for emergency lines. How was that even possible?

He almost screamed when lights turned off by themselves.

“Oh, fuck off,” he said when he saw it. Tiny blinking red light under the camera.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

In the police precinct Smoker was staring at quite similar red light, but his was on the city map. It was funny how Garp never asked how Smoker always knew where to find that damn Strawhat. The brat looked like trouble from the moment cop first saw him. So he might have planted a GPS tracking device on that precious hat of his, so what? Like he didn’t do the same with Law’s. Another troublemaker, Smoker could tell. He usually just enjoyed looking at the lights moving across the map, knowing that he had all possible disasters walking on two legs under control. But something weird was happening lately. That Law’s grumpy light started to tangle with Luffy’s all too much! Something was up, why couldn’t Garp see that? And now it happened – Law’s light went out an hour ago. So he found it and got rid of it and Smoker knew why. That damn brat was joining the mafia!

Not on my watch, thought Smoker as he grabbed the last known address, some Punk Hazard clinic. I got you now, Law!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah. Thank you for reading this far ... Really, thank you. I forgot to write this in the notes of previous chapter ... this was a christmas gift for my sister so, well, here you go! 2 chapters down, 4 more to go.


	3. My Name Is Caesar

It should have rained. At least that was what movies and series and books tried to sell us – on funerals it rains. But funerals are like football matches, they happen in every kind of weather, let it be sunny or shitty. And so, Law's parents and sister were buried under the blazing sun and a mockingly beautiful blue sky. The priest got all sweaty and so did the women in black who stood next to him.

“Speech was beautiful,” she said while wiping away her fake tears. “Right, Law?”

He said nothing.

“Oh,” she said, being rudely loud and not seeming to care. “There are your new parents, look, Law, over there!”

He nodded without lifting his head. It was so strange, so unreal how easy it all seemed, throwing away his family for someone else, like a used tissue, no longer needed.

But I need them! I still need them! I want to see them, I want to talk to them …

That was the first time, but far from last, that Law tried to run away. Too bad his new dad was a detective who could run like a stallion in gallop. Law stood no chance, not now not ever.

But it wasn’t all bad … His new mother’s hands were gentle, his new father even smiled and laughed when he run.

“It’s ok, we understand,” he said still smiling. “He’s a young boy, full of energy!”

The woman in black and Law looked at each other. Neither would describe Law as full of energy. She shrugged.

“Don’t cause any problems, ok?” she asked and left without waiting for the answer, eager to hide in her climatized car.

“It’s all going to be ok,” said Law’s new father and put his hand on Law’s arm. “How old are you?”

“I’m pretty sure they told you that when you signed the adoption papers,” answered Law.

Sengoku gripped his arm with enough strength that it hurt.

“That’s not what I asked,” he said, still smiling. Law came to be afraid of that smile.

“I’m eleven,” he finally answered and flinched when his new father raised his hand to Law’s face.

“See?” he said and touched it gently. “You do know how to obey.”

He got up from where he kneeled to be the same height as Law and left to look for his car. Law tried to follow him on shaky legs but was stopped by his new mother.

“Eleven, huh?” she said. “That means you will soon decide on your profession.”

“Yes,” answered Law. “I want to be a surgeon like my father.”

“I see,” she said. “But you will be a detective, like your new father.”

She didn’t ask. She said it like a fact.

“No!” immediately answered Law. “You can’t …”

“Oh, but I can,” she answered, ignoring him completely. “You just earned yourself a cold bed without dinner.”

“I am going to report you,” Law said, looking at her with stormy eyes.

“You’re going to report what, dear?” she said with a sweet voice. “That you won’t be getting breakfast as well? Now come here, we don’t want to leave your father waiting!”

And that was the second time he run. _She_ didn’t run like stallion, she run like a tiger ready to tear you to pieces.

Their new house was gigantic and gorgeous and painfully empty. Law’s room was big, but it only contained a bed and a closet with some new clothes. He couldn’t find his old possessions that were supposed to be delivered to him and at this point he was too afraid to ask. His late father was wealthy as well, but Law won’t be getting the money until he’s eighteen and now that seemed like an eternity.

Suddenly there was a sound of a key turning at his doors. Law just sighed, it really wasn’t a surprise anymore. Since there was nothing to do, he went to sleep, but he was shaking before it even got dark outside. Temperature in the room was rapidly dropping. _She_ wasn’t lying, he really will be getting a cold bed tonight. He pressed his legs to his stomach, trying to make himself as much of a ball as possible. He refused to give in. It got colder and colder. Right before the morning he had the feeling his tears were freezing on his checks.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

 

“Are you sure?” asked mister Corazon looking at Law’s paper. “I always thought you wanted to become a surgeon, so why detective?”

“Because my father is a detective,” answered Law with a hollow voice. Like a good little parrot.

“But your late father was a surgeon! And you have a gift for medicine, not for running around asking people questions! As a matter of fact, you are very bad at working with people!”

“That doesn’t matter,” answered Law. “I am going to be a detective.”

Just a brainless parrot.

“But Law,” said Corazon. “I am not asking what you will be, I am asking what you want to be!”

That stopped Law for a second. Never was he asked what he wanted to be.

“I want to be a surgeon,” he said.

“I see,” said Corazon. Then he went very quiet.

“You see what?” asked Law after a while.

“I need to talk to you father … No, don’t look at me like that, no need to be afraid, I have known Sengoku for a long time.”

Law sighed, he could tell this won’t end good. And he was absolutely right. He climbed through the window as always when he was locked inside and he wanted to hear what his new father had to say. But he wasn’t prepared to hear him talking to Corazon like that they were old friends.

Until that moment.

“You see Sengoku about Law’s education …”

“I knew it! That brat sent you here, didn’t he? I was wondering what you could be doing before my door after all that time, but for something like this …”

“No! It wasn’t him!” said Corazon way too fast to be believable. He always sucked at lying. Praise the lord that he was aware of it or situation would get even more awkward.

“I mean …” he tried to correct himself. “It’s just that I really don’t believe he is suitable to be a detective, you know? Not like almighty you! I mean commander at this age … But not surprisingly, you almost brought down Donquixote family, you stopped the infamous joker from killing … that’s impressive!”

“Mention your brother one more time to me and I’ll shoot you. And almost caught them? Now how is that a good thing?”

“Sen …”

Silence that followed made Law risk everything and peak trough living room’s window. Corazon stood frozen in the middle of the word, staring at Sengoku. Law shivered at the sight … Sengoku wore one of his dangerous smiles, stretched so wide his face looked like it’s about to crack.

“You want Law to be a surgeon, right?” he asked sweetly.

“Yes?” said Corazon with slight concern.

“Then I’ll let him.”

Law almost stopped breathing.

“But …”

Why is there always a but?”

“I want your brother in return.”

“No!” screamed Corazon, his composure breaking for the first time. “I cannot do that, you know that all too well! I told you everything I know and you still failed and now I’m stuck at this witness protection bullshit and you still want me to risk everything all over again?”

“Yes,” simply said Sengoku. “Or don’t, I don’t care. My plan will work with or without your help. You see I managed to acquire such a perfect target for joker he simply won’t be able to hold himself back. Thanks to you I know all about his taste. Ten years without killing and he thinks he can escape my grip?”

Corazon paled even further.

“Is that why you adopted him? Just for this plan? That’s too much even for you, Sengoku, that’s completely insane!”

“Insane? I think it’s brilliant! But there is a chance that joker sees it coming and Law loses his life … quite regrettable I must say. Too bad you won’t be there to help him.”

“You really are a messed up fucker,” said Corazon, who was so angry he could barely speak. “How exactly are you better from my brother?”

Law saw it coming, he experienced it one too many times … The way Sengoku’s vein on his face started to pulse. But not Corazon, it was first time for him.

“Because …” said Sengoku when he pinned Corazon to the ground in one majestic jump.

“I am …” he hit him in the face all over again, teacher’s hands under detective’s legs, so he was completely defenseless.

“on the …” he left the face alone for the moment and targeted stomach and few drops of blood dripped from Corazon’s lips.

“right …” then he punched his ribs, enough to fracture them.

“side.” Law quietly climbed back to his room and hid under the bed. If even an adult like teacher couldn’t stand against his new father, then who could?

Corazon took few days off after that day. Law wasn’t really surprised. Every time he saw Sengoku’s hands and his injured knuckles, he felt like puking.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

 

Everything hurt, his head the most. His hands were tied behind his back and he was starting to lose feeling in his thumbs. Gray and greenish walls around him looked like a basement. Fantastic.

Law sighed and experimentally pulled at ropes that were restraining him. He was sited on the chair in the middle of an empty room, hands back and legs to the side of the chair legs, completely immobilizing him. He felt terribly exposed and his heart started to speed up. Law breathed deeply to regain his composure. He is going to be fine (probably), it’s not like they will just hurt him (most likely) or kill him (let’s hope not).

Something closed behind him with a loud bang and he jumped, losing all courage in a second. He struggled to turn his head around to see what or better who was approaching him. Finally, the person moved to his field of vision. It was Vergo, who changed from his guard uniform to a dark coated figure, with gloves and weird looking glasses. He was walking slowly, dragging a bag behind him that made a scrubbing sound with each slide. Law shifted uncomfortably, as much as he could being all tied up, and swallowed, trying to get his voice to work again.

“Oh, hey Dara,” he said as calmly as he could. “What’s going on? I was just looking trough the files I was shown and now I’m here … How did that happen?”

And he was being thoroughly ignored. Vergo just turned away from Law, sliding his bag next to the wall and bending over to dig around in its insides.

“I am clearly being held against my …” Law’s protest was cut short when Vergo suddenly stood up and turned off the lights. Law was now, besides being annoyed as hell and slightly (but only slightly, according to himself) terrified, also completely disoriented.

“Hey Vergo, what’s the big deal?” he asked, letting as much annoyance show as possible. Better than fear. Sengoku taught him to never show fear.

His question was meet by only silence. Law’s legs twitched slightly, fight or flee instinct starting to take over, his senses sharpened to their full capability.

“Hey …” he started again, but this time he got a reply – a silent but constant buzzing of electricity. _Oh fuck._

“Hey Vergo, wait … Wait!” he started to panic. “What do you want? What are the questions? Tell me and maybe I’ll answer!”

“Questions?”

Dara’s voice was right next to his ear and Law flinched again, trying and failing to move away.

“What questions?”

Electricity run through him and Law screamed in pain, pulling blindly at his restrains, all reason lost.

“I don’t have any questions,” Dara laughed. “I just want to have some fun, that’s all.”

Pain stopped for a moment and Law felt rough gloves touch his face. Fingers traced over his skin, wiping away traces of fresh tears he didn’t even know about until they were gone. He winced, and fingers stopped under his chin, slowly raising his head.

“Ah,” signed Dara. “So, you want to play questions and answers after all? Hm, maybe I can think of something for you … Yes! I have it! Now, tell me, _Law_ , who sent you here? Who do you work for?”

Law sighed, tired and so done with everything.

“Go to hell,” he said, trying to sound strong but his voice came out broken.

Vergo laughed and shook his head.

“Not me, Law, not me.”

He raised his other hand and instead of putting it to Law stomach again, this time he went even lower.

And buzzing of the electricity was soon drowned in the sound of screams.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

 

Imagine your partner had just run away with your best friend, your neighbor stole your dog, your boss fired you over a mistake your coworker had done, your car fell apart and someone cut your fiber by mistake. Now you can imagine how outraged Nami felt.

It was just her luck, of course, that Sanji and Usopp were following another lead tonight and couldn’t pick her up. Robin and Chopper were staying away from the clinic to avoid attracting even more attention, Franky was working on some necessary repairments on his van and Brook had a concert. Go figure. That left her with only two options, which she had been cursing for the last five hours.

She had thrown her orange hair over her shoulder, shifting her hips to sit more comfortably on the small granite wall, surrounding Punk Hazard clinic. After one hour of waiting she changed back into her cleaning lady getup because she was getting a bit cold in her usual outfit. Then she ordered a take-out to clinic’s doors for dinner, only sign of it a trash pile next to her. And all that because damned Luffy and god damned Zoro roamed around the city for the last five hours, looking for a clinic that should be fifteen minutes away from their hideout. Nami could have easily been there in an hour if she walked. Taxi would be even faster, but they were waaay too expansive. She only waited (and for five hours none the less!) because she had hoped that they will show up in the next minute. But enough was enough.

She took her phone from her pocket, prepared to call those two idiots, when she noticed she didn’t have any signal, not even for emergency lines. Huh. That couldn’t be good. Or it was a temporary malfunction which was equally possible.

And in that moment, a dark car drove down the road way too fast for a children-on-the-road neighborhood and stopped right in front of her. There was a small strawhat sticker on the windshield and Nami’s brow twitched dangerously. In an instant she went from confused to relieved and then back to outraged.

When Luffy jumped out, smiling all happily, she was already there, pushing him to the carside and growling like a harpy. Or an overgrown kitten, splashed by water.

“How the hell can you _mess up_ directions so badly that …”

“Nami, wait.”

“Zoro, you’re gonna get your share soon enough.”

“That’s not what I meant. Wait, why aren’t you happy to see us? Anyway, is that Law’s car?”

Nami looked at what Zoro was pointing.

“Ah yes, it is. He decided to work overtime or something,” said Nami absently.

“But when is he going to sleep then?” asked Luffy, all confused about his new friend’s strange behavior.

“He isn’t going to, Luffy,” sighed Nami, shaking her head. Sometimes even she forgot how childlike her captain could be. It was frustrating and at the same time, a bit endearing. Her anger was long gone. But …

“And I guess we won’t be getting any sleep either if we don’t leave now. Like _right now._ Come on, Zoro, give me the key – I am going to drive.”

“But I want to say hi to Law!” pouted Luffy. “And tell him to rest more!”

Endearing my ass, thought Nami.

“Why, aren’t you considerate all the sudden,” she said with frustration in her voice. “What about, I don’t know, my sleep??”

“Nami, don’t be a …” started Zoro, walking over to their side and locking the car.

“Okay, you’re right, let’s go,” interrupted Luffy, staring over Zoro’s shoulder.

“Why would you … Oh shit,” said Nami.

They all turned and glared at Smoker, who glared back.

“Who’s the cleaning lady?” he asked.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

 

Sanji and Usopp were descending down a small stairway, meant only for employees of the IT company paid to take care of hospital’s technological problems. So, there was no need to place cameras on it, right?

For that particular reason Usopp managed to get ahold of one of their security cards that opened a whole damn lot of doors all over the city. He also stole their uniform, hacked their system and placed himself as an employee, that simply didn’t have any working hours and also didn’t receive salary, so no one actually looked twice at the unknown entry in the base. He put a fake mustache on his face, a wig over his wild hair, no matter how ridiculous it looked, and wore glasses. Sanji, on the other hand, got rid of the cigarette, changed his boots and considered himself a different man.

When they finally reached basement – Usopp stopped every few seconds to check if they were being followed – younger one immediately puled new clothes from his bag he wore for cover story of fixing the wifi in an elevator, and under Sanji’s quietly judging gaze quickly changed into a dark, neutral suit. He changed the wig, got rid of the glasses, but left mustache intact.  

“Let’s go,” he said and swiped the security card over the reader. And the door opened.

First thing they detected was an unnatural light, coming from all directions. All walls were of pure white color, and so were the floor, ceiling and doors. Next thing was a smell. It was a smell of clinical cleanness, of chemicals and death. Neither of them liked it. Sanji looked down at the paper he was clenching in his left hand.

“Door twenty-two,” he sighed. Usopp nodded.

It was not their first time in this morgue, but they both certainly hoped it was the last. They found the right door without running into anyone, partly due to their luck and partly because of Usopp’s incredible paranoia. Even the body wasn’t hard to find, with all of the hospital’s information being digitalized and very accessible to a (fake) IT employee. Too soon for their taste they were staring down at the pale face of a dead doctor. He was still waiting on an autopsy, because Joker’s victims really weren’t high on a priority list anymore. Not after years.

“Shit,” said Usopp.

“Yeah,” glumly agreed Sanji. “It’s him.”

Less than a week ago Sanji substituted his friend in a bar, helping him out so he could have a nice date night. A blonde cook was mixing cocktails as a pro when he got a very unusual client. A doctor from a local clinic, getting extremely drunk and whispering nonsense into his glass of whiskey. Sanji was busy serving some ladies, that absolutely hadn’t come just to watch a hot barman, but he still managed to catch some words in a rare moments of silence. And he was quite sure he’d heard Punk Hazard, poor children, Donquixote and _a damn mafia_. That was little to investigate, but hey, they worked with less. And when Punk Hazard turned out to be a real place, they did everything they could to get in.

But the doctor who helped them by mistake was now dead. Killed by some unrelated serial killer. Fantastic.

“What if it’s a fake?” asked Usopp. “A copycat to cover their tracks?”

Sanji shook his head.

“Why would mafia need a cover? They kill to send a message. Besides,” he added. “Cops have been staring at Joker’s victims for over two years now. If it was a copycat, they’d probably notice.”

“Damn,” said Usopp.

“Either this guy was at the wrong place in the wrong time and we have nothing to go on …,” said Sanji. “Or.”

“Or Joker and Donquixote work together now,” finished Usopp. “That’s not good.”

“We can never tell Law,” said Sanji and rubbed his eyes.

“You can never tell Law _what_?” said someone behind them.

They turned as one, Usopp shooting Sanji a I-told-you-so look that turned into a I-have-this glare. They were faced with a guy in a police uniform and a very irritated look on his face. He had a blazing red hair and a way too big to be regulation gun under his belt.

“Officer Kid,” he hissed. “And you are?”

“Oh, hello there, officer,” said Usopp, his voice much deeper all the sudden. “We are from the sanitary inspection and I have to say that this place is completely inexcusable! I mean, just look at this!”

He poked the dead body between them.

“Dead bodies! _In a morgue_ , non the less!”

Sanji sighed. Kid just raised his eyebrows so high they almost got covered by his hair.

“What?” he said.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

 

“So Garp lied to me?”

“Well, yeah.”

“So, you guys aren’t a gang?”

“Not really, no.”

“You are actually an undercover cops?”

“Yes.”

“So Garp lied to me?”

“ _Yes_.”

Nami wanted to go home. She wanted to sleep, to eat Sanji’s delicious dinner and to take a bath. What she didn’t want to do was explain the truth for the fourth time to Smoker because he seemingly didn’t manage to move past the fact that Garp lied to him. And that Strawhats were the good guys. And that he chased Luffy for nothing.

She sunk down to her knees.

“Why are you even here?” she cried out.

“Because Law found his GPS tracker and removed it!” said Smoker, still dead set on proving Strawhats were a lying pack of misfits.

“No,” said Nami tiredly and hold up her phone. “It’s just that signal is gone, that’s all.”

Smoker looked at her phone, then at his.

“Huh,” he said. “Signal blockers? But those are illegal. Why would a clinic have one?”

“I don’t know, but can you please leave us alone?” Nami was slowly losing it.

“Wait, no,” said Zoro. “This might be important. You see, Smoker, we are here because we are looking for a mafia connections this clinic has … so what if signal blocking is connected to it? They could be performing malicious acts right now.”

That stopped all three and they thought in silence for a moment. But then …

“Where the hell is Luffy?” shouted Nami and Smoker at the same time.

“Ah, he left earlier because he was bored of you two,” explained Zoro. “He went inside to say hi to Law.”

Nami shrunk even more at those words.

“He’s going to blow Law’s cover and then I’ll have to continue working as a cleaning lady,” she cried. “And we can’t even follow him without making things worse …”

“You can’t, but I can,” said Smoker. “It’s public knowledge that Law and I know each other since we worked in the same place. It won’t be so suspicious if I drop by to say hi.”

“It’s two a.m.,” deadpanned Nami.

“Well, do you have a better idea??” Smoker glared with an annoyance of someone who just found out his whole world was a lie.

She closed her eyes.

“No,” she whispered. “Just do what you do best – catch that idiot.”

 Smoker already had a plan. There was a guard’s room nearby, and its doors were conveniently opened. After checking for signs of life and founding out there were none, he slipped inside and scanned all the monitors, showing activity of different cameras over clinic. For a small building, there were surprisingly many. Soon he found the idiot who he was looking for. Luffy was acting all dog like, almost sniffing the air at the turns. He stopped for a moment at basement entrance and then slipped through the barely opened doors.

Smoker shook his head and started running, since there were no cameras in the clinic’s basement. If he lost that monkey now, he’d probably never found him again. He was a fast runner, which was another reminder on all his chases. He gripped his cigar in his pocket and cursed Garp over and over again in his head.

Soon he was rushing down the basement stairs, jumping over the last few just in time to see Luffy confusingly open and close certain doors of a room in the far end corner of main hallway.

“He should be here,” Luffy murmured all confused. “But he is not?”

Smoker quietly rushed past closed doors on the left and right, and shut the door close right before Luffy’s face, when small captain started to twist to look inside again.

“There is no one in there,” Smoker growled. “And you are coming back with me. Right now.”

They looked into each other’s eyes for a while. And then Luffy opened the damn door again.

Smoker, looking red enough to blow on pieces in anger at any second, was just about to start shouting, when they heard it. A weak, very weak, scream of pain. Smoker and Luffy looked at each other again, then Luffy opened the door ever wider and Smoker was already running trough the empty room, pushing medical equipment piled in it away to confirm his fears. The last wall was hiding a hidden door. He saw many just like this one, so he didn’t hesitate. He pushed at it and hidden door started to open, very slowly. Luffy was standing right behind Smoker, all his body tensed up as prepared for a fight. Older cop wasn’t any better, he already holstered his gun. They both detected signs of movement on the other side and Smoker burst into the hidden room with his weapon up, safety removed. But whoever was there before, was already gone. There was only a chair. And on it, Law.

“Knife in previous room,” hissed Smoker and knelt next to his coworker without waiting for Luffy to react. Kid was fast, he gave him that, and returned before Smoker could blink, handing him a scalpel.

He cut the bonds which were tying Law to the chair. He then removed them, very carefully, because they rubbed so deeply into Law’s skin on his wrists that blood run from them and dripped on the floor. He was unconscious. Whatever sounds he made earlier was just a reaction of a beaten body. Without anything to support him he fell forward, and Smoker caught him and slowly lowered him to the ground, supporting his head in the process. He rolled Law on his back. He will need to check if Law was even in the state to be moved or was too hurt for any rough treatment carrying him up the stairs would imply.

“Hey, Luffy,” he said with his voice weirdly rough. “Go back out, to your friends.”

“No!” Luffy looked mad at Smoker for even implying he should leave. “That guy could still be here …”

They both looked up at the unseen door he must had used to escape.

“Yeah,” said Smoker with his gun still out. “But so am I.”

Luffy and Smoker looked each other in the face for the last time that day. In the gray eyes of a pale cop was a storm. And in the captain’s black eyes was fire.

“Do what gangs do best. And now, go.”

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

 

“Do you regret it?”

“Regret what?” asked Zoro.

“Signing up for this,” answered Nami. “Because on some nights, like this one, I almost wonder … Is it even worth it?”

Zoro gave her a weird look but didn’t answer. They were sitting on the ground where Smoker left them, in the parking lot next to their dark car. Nami stood up and dragged her finger over the golden strawhat sticker.

“Sometimes …” she started but didn’t continue.

“Luffy,” said Zoro and startled her.

“Luffy what?” she asked as she turned back to swordsman.

And then she saw it.

Luffy looked like a night storm on the sea, anyone his wrath was directed to would cover in fear. That was the moment when people fell on their knees and bowed. That was the moment when even dragon would lay on its back and showed its belly.

“Law was hurt,” said Luffy quietly when he got close. Nami and Zoro stayed quiet. Luffy wasn’t in the mood for any questions. “And now we are going to do what gangs do best.”

They nodded. No need to ask questions, they both knew what he meant. What gangs do best? _They start a fight worth remembering_ , that’s what.

They walked as one towards the entrance, Luffy and Zoro scary like hell with their grim faces and Nami slightly less in her outfit, but she tried her hardest to looked absolutely pissed. The clinic’s doors opened with a loud sound when Luffy kicked at them, Sanji style, and they walked inside. A light from the parking lot in the background made them look like avenging angels or four horsemen of apocalypse if one of them took a vacation and there would only be three. Two figures waited on them inside. A very weird man and a woman with glasses and a notebook.

“And who might you be?” asked first one with a calmness of a store manager.

“We are Strawhat gang,” growled Luffy. “And we are here to find the guy who hurt Law.”

“Who?” asked Caesar, playing all confused. “Ah! Oh, sorry, he already left for today. Or for yesterday. Whatever.”

“Oh no,” sighed Luffy and then immediately shifted back to threatening. “But we will be back tomorrow! I mean today!”

And he pointed finger towards Caesar, and then turned to leave. Zoro and Nami sighed.

“Wow,” said Caesar. “Just … wow.”

“Yea, I know,” said Nami. “Give him a minute.”

Luffy stopped.

“Wait!” he shouted and turned. “You fooled me! There is no way he already left when we were standing next to the entrance. You don’t even know the guy, do you?”

“Wow,” said Nami, Zoro and Caesar.

Five minutes later Caesar was still explaining Luffy who he was and what was his plan.

“… and they all work for me you see … yeah, I am doing illegal experiments on the children, we are trying to develop the super solder serum … yes indeed, I don’t pay taxes either …”

“I understand,” finally said Luffy and Caesar, Zoro and Nami all sighed in relief.

“It’s not that complex,” said Monet.

“But it is!” screamed Caesar. “Do you think it was easy to create gas bomb that will go off if I tell it to? Do you think it was easy to think of a way to take all children as hostages?”

“We are a gang,” said Zoro. “No, we are a mafia family. Do you really think that simple thread would be enough to stop us?”

“Simple? Simple??” Caesar looked ready to burst. “I’ll show you simple!”

He turned to his assistant.

“Monet! Go get the children! And I’ll get the bomb! We’ll show them simple!”

And he started running with his weird, half running and half jumping run.

“Zoro!” screamed Nami. “Children lives are on the line, how dare you …”

“Shut up,” growled Zoro and unsheathed his sword. “They will lead us right where we need to be. Now, just to decide who goes where …”

“I’m going to help the children,” said Nami. “And you are coming with me, or you will be hopelessly lost. And as for Luffy …”

They both looked at the spot where Luffy was. Or at least where he used to be.

“How damn typical,” said Nami.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

 

Smoker was half dragging, half carrying Law across the basement. Young consultant was still unconscious, but except some small tissue damage and bloody wrists older cop found no serious injuries. The lights around him stopped working a few minutes ago, his only source of light now the open door of the basement exit, that the monkey left wide opened.

He looked down for a moment, readjusting his grip, when shadow fell over him and at the next second the door closed. He was startled, thinking he was being locked down in the dark underground place, when he detected breathing, other than his and Law’s. There was movement on top of the stairs and he cursed.

“Do you really believe I won’t shoot you?” he asked, rising his right hand that was holding the gun, the one he lowered earlier when he was stopping Law from slipping out of his hold.

Whoever was on the stairs started running and Smoker cursed again, shooting blindly into that direction. Gunpowder ignition blinded him, the sound of shot and bullet colliding with the wall deafened him. It definitely wasn’t the best idea he ever had.

And even before he could regain his composure, he was hit in the face with such a strength that his nose broke and he saw stars. His opponent was wielding a baseball bar, or a baton, or …

Stop thinking, he ordered himself. It doesn’t matter what it is, you need to dodg …

He was hit again, this time in the back of his head, dropping down to the ground, dropping Law in the process, who grunted in pain.

Smoker immediately rolled away, leaving Law behind, hoping the attacker would ignore the injured man. Still close to the ground he could hear a sound of a weapon swinging trough the air and he dodged but failed to predict the kick that followed. He was hit into his shoulder, dropping his gun in the process. He rolled away again, grabbing the scalpel from under his belt where he secured it earlier if he needed it again, jumping up and slashing forward with his new weapon, but he was hit from the side and yet again dropped his weapon.

His lower part of the face and his shirt were all bloody from his broken nose and he was getting really annoyed at the situation.

“Why don’t you fight like a man, you dumb criminal?” he shouted, trying to get at least some response from the man. No success, not even a chuckle.

And in that moment, Law started to shift on the floor.

“What …” he whispered.

“Welcome back, Law,” said a voice to the Smoker’s left and at that moment, he got him. He jumped like a tiger and wrapped his hands around the attacker’s middle, tackling him to the floor. Attacker’s breath ragged in surprise and Smoker reached for his hands, trying to press the guy down, with his hands on his back. He failed, he expected the attacker was wielding his weapon with both of his hands, but that wasn’t the case at all, crazy bastard was using his right hand for bat and holding a bag in his left. They were struggling for a moment, both trying to get the upper hand, until Smoker lost his grip on the attacker, leaving him with only the bag in his hands, and he was kicked to his stomach before he could even realize what was going on. He pressed his back to the wall, trying to shield himself with his hands, when he heard a breathless voice in front of him.

“That doesn’t belong to you,” the voice said. “Give it back.”

“Really?” said Smoker and pushed his hands inside the bag. “I haven’t noticed.”

He grabbed two things, and if they were, what he thought they were, he just got really lucky.

“Looky here,” he growled and used the flashlight.

He was blinded, but so was his attacker, and according to his scream of pain, night vision gadget and a sudden light source didn’t exactly go hand in hand.

Before any of them could really start to see, Smoker launched forward to where his opponent was, and pushed the teaser, still set on max, to his abdomen and turned it on.

The security guard, as he saw him now, sagged a little and stumbled backwards, but did not fall, he even gripped his baton tighter, preparing to strike.

“How tough is this fucker?” cried Smoker under his breath.

“Hey,” said Law, now standing right beside them.

Guard turned, and Law stabbed him in the chest with the scalpel in one swift movement.

“What the hell,” said Smoker, when his attacker fell to the ground, gripping his bleeding wound.

“I wanted to do this for a while now,” said Law.

“Good point,” said Smoker. “But what the hell.”

“Don’t worry,” said Law and rolled his eyes. “I’ve missed all of his vitals.”

And he collapsed again right next to the security guard.

“Are you still alive?” asked Smoker and poked Law’s leg with his shoe.

“I hate you,” growled Law. “I will stab you. And then I will stab him again.”

“Come on, get up,” said the older cop and offered Law his hand, still holding the flashlight in the other. Law grabbed it as he leaned on Smoker, breathing heavily.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said quietly.

“But what about that guy?”

“Leave him here.”

“And the bag?”

“Just leave it! I’ve been shut in here for hours, I need to leave, Smoker!” shouted Law desperately, not being sure how much longer can he keep holding on to consciousness.

“Fine, fine,” replied Smoker and started dragging them towards the stairs. “You’re right, I’m just being paranoid. What could he have in that poor bag of his anyway, a bomb trigger? Ha!”

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

 

It was all over. Nami knew that. She looked away for the moment, when she heard a child scream, and she lost him. She lost Zoro. She looked to a ceiling for a moment, silently asking any existing deity what she has done to deserve this. Then she put her hand into the pocket of her uniform and pulled out a key. She then used that key on a nearby closet and pulled out a broom and a teaser she kept inside in case any of the doctors would get too touchy (but they never had, those strange creatures).

If she was going down, she was going down in style. And dressed as a cleaning lady, apparently. She ran, feeling all confident, until Monet dropped a closet on her.

It’s not like the closet hit her, but it still pissed her off enough to use the broom as a weapon and hit her opponent on the head. And that would be it, if she used the right side … but she used the bottom instead of the top by mistake and all that did was give Monet a really angry looking hairdo. Monet hissed in anger and slapped Nami hard enough for her skin to redden, who in turn decided to use her nails as claws to redecorate Monet’s makeup. The ultimate cat fight between a cleaning lady and a secretary followed for several minutes, full of kicks, slaps, tiny boxing punches and even some bites (not Nami’s proudest moment), until Nami rediscovered her teaser. She twisted and jumped as a lioness, pushing the teaser to Monet’s chest and turning it on. Now, if that was a military grade device like the one Vergo used, poor assistant would be twitching on the floor in pain. But it was not, it was a consumer grade item made in China, also child proofed and with very poor battery life. It did work, Monet could feel a gentle tingling, but it wasn’t really what Nami had in mind.

“Interesting,” said Monet after touching her chest to make sure she was unharmed, and used her pen as a blade, slashing over Nami’s face.

Nami cried out in pain, jerking back and covered her cheek where the cut was the deepest. She could feel blood slipping between her fingers.

“How do you like _that_?” smirked Monet and again prepared to strike with the pen, this time targeting Nami’s eye.

“Not very much,” answered a voice behind the secretary and she turned just in time for Zoro to slash over her with his sword. He moved out of the way when she fell to the ground, screaming in pain.

“Zoro!” shouted Nami. “What are you doing? You cannot just go around and use your sword on people!”

He shrugged.

“I’ve missed all of her vitals,” he said.

Nami looked down and frowned.

“No, you haven’t.”

“Close enough,” said Zoro and waved his hand in dismissal. “We always come to help you and you are never grateful for it.”

“Because you are desperately late each time,” hissed Nami and tried to fix her hair, her clothes and her face at the same time. And then she remembered.

“The children!” she shouted and ran towards the room at the end of the hallway.

“You look ok to me,” commented Zoro and followed her, for once. She should never know he was testing Caesar’s coffee machines, trying to get them to make something alcoholic.

Children, as it turned out, were completely fine.

“But I heard a scream,” said Nami confused, looking at their happy faces.

“Mocha tripped,” said one of the boys and a clumsily looking girl looked down at her feet in embarrassment.

Nami sighed and got up.

“Okay then,” she said and turned to leave, waving Zoro to move from the doorway where he was leaning on the wall.

“Wait!” cried out one of the children. “Don’t leave us here! We want to get out!”

“You are here for a reason,” said Nami sadly. She didn’t meet children all that lot at work, but she had grown quite fond of them.

“No!”; screamed another kid. “They are doing weird things to us!”

He had her there. She looked at Zoro, who shook his head.

“They are children,” he explained. “They think anything medicine related is strange.”

“But if the doctors are mafia …”

“We don’t know that,” he refused her pleading look. “For now, we only have two, possibly three suspects that confirmed they are criminals. We just can’t afford taking a bunch of children out not being sure what will that do to …”

“Zoro,” she said, and her tone made him stop in an instant. “We are taking them, or I will charge you a fee every time you are late. _To anything._ ”

“You witch!” he said in shock but was unable to refuse. Not when she put it like that.

After throwing away her broom and her teaser, Nami left with the children, looking all smug and still kind at the same time, not refusing any request to hold the little ones hands, even though it got hard at the end. Zoro was leading the way with a grim expression on his face. Needless to say, they got lost. A lot.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

 

Luffy followed Caesar without any problems, only stopping once to pick some candy that smelled nicely from a wending machine. It was like the head doctor wasn’t even seriously trying to get away. Now if Luffy would be actually thinking about … well, anything, he would have been slightly concerned about the whole thing being a trap. Of course, he wasn’t thinking at all.

Nice, cozy part of the clinic soon faded to bare walls and gray halls of the employee only part of the building. Tubes run along the ceiling and doors were more like holes in the wall than what they were meant to be. Caesar stopped from time to time and did something on the wall, but Luffy, who was always at least one turn behind, was none the wiser. And so, they arrived at their final destination. A huge room, some sort of the storage by the looks of it, located on the furthest back of the clinic.

“Muahaha, you idiot!” shouted Caesar. “You walked right into my trap!”

Luffy looked thoroughly unimpressed.

“I don’t care,” he announced. “I am going to kick your ass and then find the guy who hurt Law. And then kick his ass too.”

“Oh my, you really are a simpleton,” frowned Caesar, as if that wasn’t obvious from their previous conversations, and placed a gas mask on his face. Luffy launched himself towards his unusual opponent just as he pulled a remote from his pocket, smiling viciously and pressing on it. That didn’t do much though as Luffy’s fist collided with his face. Caesar stumbled backwards and Luffy stilled, surprised by a laud bang that followed his punch. It was more than just a sound of flesh hitting flesh, it was an iron slam sound. He turned and saw that all the doors to the big place they were in were closed now, and sealed shut. But it was just some unimportant obstacles, right? Just something he can break through later.

He turned back to Caesar, grabbed him for by his shirt and hit him. Once, twice, …

“Stop!” shouted his target and he waited to see what he had to say. “How dare you lay your hands on me, you simple peasant …”

… three times, four times ….

“Wait …” gritted Caesar through his teeth, punches not strong enough to put him under, just enough to gave him a black eye and flushed cheeks.

And in that moment, Luffy surprisingly found out he was out of breath.

“Wa…” he tried and figured out he cannot.

“Ha!” shouted Caesar through his mask. “You fell for my plan yet again! I was just stalling, you ignorant fool!”

Luffy wanted to tell him that he wasn’t stalling, he was getting his ass kicked, but it was suddenly very hard to breathe.

“Ha!” laughed Caesar, muffled because of the piece of plastic, covering his mouth and nose. “Carbon monoxide, how do you like it? How do you enjoy being slowly suffocated by just simply breathing air?”

He waved with his remote.

“Now prepare for …”

Luffy jumped back, trying to breathe, and failing at it. The whole room was spinning. Caesar kept on talking, saying something about a hydrogen, and suddenly there was a ring of fire spreading towards him. He dodged by jumping over it, but one of the lost flames burned his hand anyway. He rolled down, his body telling him to stay down and just go to sleep, his limbs felt like they were made of lead. He resisted and got up and run, looking around for anything he could use. The room was mostly empty, only a few wooden boxes were slowly burning in one corner.

Luffy knew his problem had a simple solution, but he simply couldn’t figure it out. It was even harder now with his head in its state, with his brain out of oxygen and his vision blurring. And then there was Caesar, still waving with his damn remote … That really pissed Luffy off. He gathered the last of his strength and launched himself towards the clinic’s head, pulling him down and tearing the remote from his hands.

“I can do it too,” he groaned with the last of his breath and pressed a random button.

“No!” shouted Caesar in despair. “You do not click pure oxygen in a room that’s on fire!”

“Huh?” said Luffy who could suddenly breathe again. And in the next second he was flying across the room, losing his hearing for a few moments. He hit the wall and groaned in pain, twice, because Caesar hit him first and then the wall. Luffy turned to look at what had happened, some white dots still dancing over his vision, when he realized he cannot breathe again. And as for the state the room was in … the corner where burning wooden crates were not long ago was gone, along with a nice portion of the roof and floor. Lights flickered once, twice, and then they exploded in a stream of sparks, filling the room with darkness, only source of light now being the light pollution that came with every large city.

“My … master … plan …” was the only thing Caesar managed before he completely fainted comfortably leaned on the wall. Luffy used that moment to remove Caesar’s mask and put it on himself, finally being able to breathe normally.

The explosion also took down the sealed doors, so Luffy, who decided there was nothing more for him to do here, threw away the remote and left. A few steps later he also threw away the mask, waving up and down with his injured hand like it was nothing.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

 

Soon enough everyone gathered outside of the clinic, gratefully inhaling the (relatively) fresh city air. Nami was there, trying to distract the children from the sound of an explosion by telling them a story and waving her hands heroically in her cleaning lady uniform. Zoro was right next to her, talking on the phone with Franky and Robin. Smoker stood a bit away from them, almost like he was wary of the children, and supported Law who still had troubles standing on his own. Even Luffy arrived safely, laughing and waving with the blackened hand that instantly gave everyone else a good portion of gray hair, Law shouting at him something along the lines of _stay still you damned monkey_.

Zoro hung up and joined Law and Smoker to talk about the mafia part of the clinic. They needed to make sure enough evidence will be preserved, and that they gathered some leads which could help them track down the Donquixote family itself.

“Sorry,” said Law, finally allowing Smoker to let him down on the floor. “But I’m not sure I can get back in there right away. I can tell you everything I remember though, including the locations of all the files, had they not been moved while we were fighting the main force of this clinic, if I am being correct.”

“It’s ok,” said Zoro. “Just tell me the location and I’ll go and get them. But make sure you take care of Luffy and the children in the meantime … If you feel up to the task, that is.”

Law sighed and rubbed his eyes with his left hand.

“Children treatment will be hard. First, we have that addiction problem. All the food and drinks inside the clinic are highly addictive, after all.”

“All the drinks?” asked Zoro and gulped. “Coffee included?”

“Of course,” said Law and narrowed his eyes. “Why are you …”

Last part of his question was drowned in the sound of an explosion, ten times bigger than the one Luffy had caused.

“My god,” gasped Smoker.

Half of the clinic was gone, and the other half was quickly swallowed by the greedy flames.

“All the evidence was in there,” said Zoro with a frown.

“Zoro!” shouted Nami. “Help me out!”

She was trying to calm the terrified children who were scared to the point where they only wanted to run and never look back.

“We need to get them to the hospital right away!” said Law who found some strength and followed Zoro on the shaky legs. “You said you drunk some coffee, Zoro? You too, then.”

“When,” said Nami with her eyes narrowed in a very much the same manner as Law earlier.

“Em, candy too?” asked Luffy.

“ _When_ ,” said Nami again.

“Candy too,” confirmed Law. “Now we only need a way to transport all somehow …”

Van with a strawhat sticker drove pass them and parked next to Law’s car.

“And there we go,” said Zoro.

Franky and Robin got out of the van, looking a bit shell shocked at the site of a burning building behind them.

“Robin will drive Law’s car, I will drive Zoro’s and Franky can drive his van,” decided Nami and started sorting them and children into three different vehicles. Soon they were ready to go, with only one person missing a spot.

Ten minutes later firefighter trucks, police vehicles and an ambulance drove into the clinic’s empty parking lot with their sirens on and lights flashing.

One person was sitting on the wall.

First police officer on the scene was maybe really completely green, but he was dedicated to his work.

“You, sir, are under arrest!” he told the sitting person.

“Fuck off,” growled Smoker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Each time I was supposed to write flashlight I wrote flesh lamp instead and I have no idea why ... But I was laughing for a while after finding out and I thought I'd share.

**Author's Note:**

> I have no one to read and correct my numerous mistakes so I would appreciate it greatly if you find a mistake - and happen to have a minute - to write a comment pointing it out so I can correct it and improve my english in the process. Thank you!


End file.
